Addressing the shortcomings of the K-12 education system requires that we devote a lot more attention and resources to early childhood education. We must have the foresight to lay a solid foundation of lifelong learning skills.

We're a nation that's coming to respect statistics. Billy Bean convinced us that better statistics could beat bigger payrolls in sports. Nate Silver helped humble Karl Rove's money machine with better statistics. Maybe it's time to take a more careful look at the international test statistics judging how good our nation's schools are.